Mapping the Field of Sociological Foundations of Education

• In Event: Educational Foundations: A Book Symposium

Abstract

This paper examines how we might define the ‘sociology of education’ field. Drawing on previous attempts to outline the development and contours of the field (Ball, 2004 & 2017; Apple et al, 2010; James, 2020), we integrate recent insights offered by a range of scholars who are located in different parts of the world on how a sociological lens is applied to the study of education. In this paper, we therefore, map the contours of the field, while continuously examining the commonalities and differences in the way education has been studied through a sociological lens across different parts of the world.
We argue that the ‘the sociology of education’ can be understood as being bounded by four orienting characteristics. First, education is broadly defined - as being about teaching and learning; having a social purpose; as being shaped by multiple stakeholders; as taking place in formal and informal institutions; and as directly shaping identities, social relations and future trajectories. Second, education is a contested concept – being understood as being both a symbolic object and an institution – that is continuously being struggled over, as multiple stakeholders attempt to determine the role of education, its specific form and outcomes. Third, the sociological study of education focuses on understanding the associated processes, meanings and outcomes of education, by examining both the role of discourse and structures. And finally, fourth, that the sociological study of education draws on theory to shape research and interpret data.
The paper then seeks to offer an overview of empirical insights and theoretical frames that dominate our understandings in the sociology of education. We do this by reviewing key findings in relation to four central questions that are sociological in nature and which we see as driving the ‘sociology of education’ field. We examine first how scholars have engaged with the intersections between schooling and the formation of the modern nation state (Labaree, 1997; Green, 2013). We then summarise some of the key scholarship around how processes of globalisation are shaping education and intersecting with the structuring mechanisms of the nation state (Ydesen, 2019; Yemini & Maxwell, 2020). Our third key question explores whether or not education is a process of social mobility or of social reproduction (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). Finally, we examine how education becomes a core focus in the sociological ‘structure v. agency’ debate (Reay, 2004). We conclude the chapter by first, outlining how scholarship within the sociology of education has evolved similarly and differently across the world, and second, by setting out four areas we propose the sociology of education should continue to focus on. These future directions for research include: intersections between local, nation and global; the mobilities turn in social theory; the growing role of technology; and engaging further pluralism in theoretical influences and methodological approaches.

Author

• Claire Maxwell, University of Copenhagen